Yasiin Mugerwa
9 November 2009
The parliamentary Public Accounts Committee will this week demand answers from the Prime Minister's Office on how it spent Shs10.8 billion on media and publicity during the 2007 Commonwealth summit.
Initial reports indicate that the money was paid without supporting documents, including receipts.
In the spotlight are South African company, GlobeCast, and two local firms, Saatchi & Saatchi and Terp Ltd, the latter headed by President Museveni's son in-law, Odrek Rwabwogo.
"How can one pay over Shs10.8b without a valid contract in place not even receipts? These people committed taxpayers on verbal deals because they wanted to benefit," said Mr Theodore Ssekikubo, a member of the probe team.
He added: "This is enough evidence to show how taxpayers' money was "eaten" in the name of Chogm."
In December 2007, the Cabinet requested the Auditor General, Mr John Muwanga to undertake a value-for-money audit on Chogm activities following complaints from MPs that some officials had abused the funds.
In his report, which is before Pac, Mr Muwanga listed many instances of non-compliance with the laws, resulting into abuse of funds.
For instance, on media and publicity services, Mr Muwanga revealed that GlobeCast was paid more than Shs7.8 billion without records.
Another publicity company, Saatchi & Saatchi and TERP Consult were also paid Shs1.4 billion, out of the contracted Shs2.4billion, also without supporting documentation.
But when Mr Pius Bigirimana, the new accounting officer in the Prime Minister's Office, appeared before the Chogm probe committee on October 29, he admitted ignorance on the expenditures.
"He is free to pass the ball to Mr Martin Odwedo, the former permanent secretary who chaired the Chogm publicity committee," said Mr Nandala Mafabi, the Pac chairman.
Queen blip
The Office of the Prime Minister will have to explain why UBC TV, which was supposed to broadcast live Chogm events, went off air when Queen Elizabeth visited Parliament.
While the former information Minister Kirunda Kivejinja attributed the incident to lack of preparedness by the UBC crew, the national telecaster said they were denied early access by security agencies.
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